Quote of the day by James Clerk Maxwell: "It is of great advantage to.…"

Learning something from a finished textbook can give us a clear answer, but it does not always show us how that answer came to be. James Clerk Maxwell believed that students could gain something deeper by returning to the original work of the scientists who first developed an idea. In his words, "It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state." His observation is a reminder that knowledge becomes more meaningful when we encounter it close to its beginnings, where questions, uncertainty and discovery are still visible.The renowned physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) revolutionised the study of electricity, magnetism, light, and the kinetic theory of gases. His work on electromagnetism set the base for modern physics and went on to contribute to the evolution of many technologies such as radio and telecommunications.Quote of the day by James Clerk Maxwell“It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state.”What doe...